Cem İlhan

Cem İlhan (1966/Diyarbakır) has been pursuing his architecture profession and painting art in parallel for 37 years. On the one hand, he continues his architectural office activities, on the other hand, he has been in a production where the two fields feed each other since the days when he completed his master's degree in the Painting Department of Marmara University, Faculty of Fine Arts, Hüsamettin Koçan's studio in 1995. He continues his architecture and painting studies together in his studio in Istanbul.
The multi-layered perspective and traces of architecture can be seen in Cem İlhan's works. İlhan's art is rooted in the traces left in the memory of landscapes and cities. In his paintings, he focuses on transforming temporary moments into permanent images. These are mostly records where the abstract and the concrete are blended, where intuition, memory and feeling are intertwined. It offers a fresh perspective on the familiar and the everyday. The personal language that İlhan brings to each painting changes a recognizable subject, develops it and transforms it into a creative visual experience.
Traces of architectural sketches and improvised patterns can be seen at the root of Cem İlhan’s mostly watercolor works. The precision required by architectural practice and the surprising results of watercolor technique’s unpredictability are reflected in his paintings.